Ontario Premier Doug Ford is escalating efforts to crack down on harmful coronavirus behaviour by introducing steep new fines for price gouging and moving to limit gatherings to five people.
Ford laid out the new measures in a Saturday afternoon press conference, saying that he was willing to lay down the law to ensure that the province has its best shot of limiting the spread of COVID-19, which has so far claimed the lives of 18 Ontarians.
"This is a defining moment for our province," said the premier at Queen's Park, setting the stakes for extraordinary measures to combat the coronavirus and calling for unity amongst Ontarians.
While he praised what he characterized as the good behaviour of the vast majority of residents, he also chastised companies who have reportedly been price gouging, including a gourmet Toronto grocer selling a canister of Lysol wipes for $29.99 and a office supply retailer selling regular-sized bottles of hand sanitizer for $119.99.
If this is true, it’s despicable. We’re following up and coming down hard. Stay tuned for an announcement later today. pic.twitter.com/CtRLmrMket
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) March 28, 2020
"My friends, I have zero tolerance for this kind of nonsense," he said, adding that it's "un-Canadian, it's wrong and today we're putting an end to it."
To that effect the government passed an order-in-council on Friday placing hefty penalties for price gouging essential items like hand sanitizer and medical face masks. If convicted an individual can face a fine of up to $100,000 and a year in jail, and a company director can face a fine of up to $500,000 and a year in jail. Corporations can be fined up to $10 million.
"I'm coming after them with a vengeance," the premier vowed.
It was not immediately clear what the threshold for what constitutes price gouging will be, but the premier urged the public to get involved, and read out a snitch line for people to call if they see excessive prices on essential goods. The Emergency Management Act empowers the government to prohibit "charging unconscionable prices in respect of necessary goods, services and resources."
The premier also announced he plans to further restrict gatherings of people in Ontario to groups of five, down from 50. The limit, expected to be approved by cabinet late Saturday, would not apply to family gatherings, child care and essential workplaces.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also declared a nationwide travel crackdown amid concerns that more needs to be done to limit the spread of the coronavirus, saying that people with coronavirus symptoms would not be allowed to travel domestically on trains or planes.
The more restrictive measures were put in place as Ontario saw an additional 151 positive cases of coronavirus compared to numbers at the same time yesterday, a day-over-day jump of 15.6 per cent. For the second day in a row, Ontario put a dent in its backlog of cases, although at the average rate over the past two days it would take about eight days to eliminate that backlog.
Last week the government vowed to ramp up testing to 5,000 a day by the end of this week, but they fell short of the target. Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said that the province was now looking to hit that target by early next week, explaining that some new facilities require preliminary double-testing to ensure quality assurance before being added.
In response to a question from QP Briefing Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams also said public health is doing its own modelling to assess possible coronavirus scenarios and added "hopefully we'll be coming out with something very shortly on that."
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